Sgt Frog Abridged - Episode 4
Episode 4 of Sgt Frog Abridged is Dororo and Koyuki's introduction episode, though it focuses on Dororo and gives some back-story to his relationship with Keroro and Giroro. Episode Summary A new girl arrives at Natsumi's school, while the last member of the platoon appears from the shadows. Things don't go as expected. Cast (In Order of Appearance) *Reporter lady: LillyLivers *Keroro / Li'l Keroro: Mugiwara Yoshi *Patty Morgan Sanders: Mugiwara Yoshi *Koyuki: RevyMoonshine *Natsumi: LillyLivers *Lesbo #2: ThornBrain *Fuyuki: ThornBrain *Dororo / Li'l Zeroro: ThornBrain *Giroro: ThornBrain *Viper: BigTUnit1 *Tamama: ThornBrain *Aki: LillyLivers *Dororo's Mom: ThornBrain (uncredited by mistake) Additional Voices *Guy on the bridge: Mugiwara Yoshi (Now stated to instead be Mrs PMS) *Seal alien: ThornBrain *Lesbo #1: Mugiwara Yoshi (her only line is her trademark squeal) *Solid Snake: ThornBrain Sgt Frog Episodes Used *Episode 13A/13B Music Used *"Tekno Gunsou" - Keroro Gunsou OST - the intro scene on Generic Japanese Bridge *"Dead Radios" - Sawtooth (AKA Vorhias), Everybody Has a Hit Single! - Natsumi's school *"Hearts on Fire" - John Cafferty, Rocky IV - Koyuki doing an over-the-top, acrobatic flip *"Inside the Forest Haven" - The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker OST - Koyuki's house *"Strategy" - Sonic Adventure 2 OST - Koyuki going out to find the platoon *"Eleki Gunsou" - Keroro Gunsou OST - Dororo's full introduction; the platoon appearing to rescue Dororo *"Lost in the Sky" - Keroro Gunsou OST - Dororo's sob story *"Cavern" - Metal Gear Solid OST - Viper's theme *"Alphen10000" - Keroro Gunsou OST - Keroro talking about growing up with Dororo; Li'l Zeroro's house *"Escape Velocity 127" - Keroro Gunsou OST - Flashback of Li'l Keroro, Li'l Giroro and Li'l Zeroro riding the saucers; Credits Development Notes On September 17, Thorn and Yoshi auditioned and hired RevyMoonshine of Gutted Wren Studios as the new voice actor for Koyuki; up until that point, Koyuki was technically the only main character they never cast before Episode 1R. There were plans for Ezekieru to make a surprise cameo as antagonist Viper, but it didn't work out, and he instead suggested his friend BigTUnit1 as a replacement. The script was completed on September 16. Lilly's main lines were recorded on September 20, Thorn's were completed on the 24th, Yoshi's were recorded on the 25th, Revy's were recorded on October 3rd, and BigTUnit1's lines were completed on October 13. Lilly contributed one last set of lines on October 16, allowing for editing to begin. The video was completed ahead of schedule and uploaded to YouTube the night of Saturday, October 23. Post-Credits *Part 1: Keroro gives more examples of games he and Giroro played with Zeroro, all of which are much more absurd than those earlier in the episode. *Part 2: Giroro points out that Dororo refusing to rejoin the team contradicts Episode 3, to which Dororo promptly rejoins the team. Keroro invites them to play "Evil Space Gerbil" again. Joke References and Explanations Running gags *Thorn hid the covers of his five favorite albums by Los Angeles band Sparks in the Hinata house throughout the video, in order from his #1 favorite to his #5 favorite. **[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono_My_House Kimono My House] is superimposed into the picture frame behind Fuyuki and Keroro in the intro scene. **[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halfnelson_(album) Halfnelson], the band's eponymous debut from when they were originally called "Halfnelson", is on the wall behind Aki and Natsumi when Keroro is talking about growing up with Zeroro. **[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._1_In_Heaven No. 1 in Heaven] is barely visible on the kitchen wall when Tamama says, "I think she's a ditz", and Keroro responds, "I like her tits, too". **[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_(Sparks_album) Propaganda] replaces Halfnelson during the Post-credits sequence the first time the camera faces the same wall. **[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratuitous_Sax_%26_Senseless_Violins Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins] replaces Propaganda the second time the camera faces the wall. *There are hints throughout the scenes with Natsumi that all of the girls at her school, including the teachers, are obsessed with her: **Mrs. PMS very vocally admires Natsumi, angrily yelling that she's the only one who has a future compared to her peers, and that she's the only one with any athletic ability whatsoever. ***Mrs. PMS is also the person playing the drumroll; the sound pans across the stereo in relation to where she would be compared to the direction of the camera. **Natsumi remarks that although Koyuki sniffed her, she is still "more polite than her friends". This is a callback to Episode 1, wherein Lesbo #1 grabbed and rubbed Natsumi's back with her chest. The Episode 1 remake also gave that scene a decidedly menacing tone. **When Natsumi sees Koyuki escaping her house's ducts, she complains "Why does every girl I meet try to sneak into my house?!" Fuyuki follows her up with "It happened again?" **Giroro is able to smell Koyuki's lesbianism. *There are several examples of Zeroro's/Dororo's friendship and dependency issues throughout the episode: **He appears to have developed a supportive father/teenage daughter relationship with Koyuki. Her reactions to his questioning can be seen as standard blase' responses from the daughter, and/or Koyuki getting tired of Dororo's antics. **Although Dororo claims to have split from the platoon, he still holds hope that they are actually looking for him. **Although Dororo tells the team not to search for him, he leaves them his address. **While on the saucers, Li'l Keroro jokes "You better not hit the brake, or you're going to break, ha ha, our friendship!" Li'l Zeroro takes this to heart and refuses to brake when they're about to hit a wall. Before he hits it, he yells out, "FRIE-HE-HENDSHIP!" **Li'l Zeroro's mom apparently had to pay kids to hang out with him. **He seemed to believe that being "best friends forever" meant getting married. **Zeroro put up with all of the abusive "games" Keroro and Giroro played with him for the sake of being their friend. **Dororo only needed to have his dependency on Keroro reaffirmed before he would escape from Viper's ropes. Keroro does this by admitting to Dororo that he broke his music box when they were little. This is the most blatant revelation that Keroro and Giroro's abuse of Dororo actually led him to become more attached to them; he effectively has Stockholm syndrome. **Dororo leaves a second time, claiming to no longer be in the team. Regardless, he leaves them a note with a lipstick mark. ***Koyuki notes that he didn't leave them the address of her house. It is revealed why in the Post-Credits when Dororo rejoins the team; he was apparently going to rejoin them anyway. **In the first part of the Post-Credits, after Keroro talks about other games he and Giroro played with Zeroro, Li'l Zeroro painfully calls out, "I love you guuuuys!" *Keroro and Tamama's partnership is referenced twice: **When Giroro throws a postcard into Keroro's head, he claims to lose his sex drive. Tamama promptly vows, "I will rebuild it if it kills me!!!" **When Dororo leaves them a lipstick mark, Keroro remarks, "I'm starting to think he's almost as gay as me". *4 and 9 are further established as running gag numbers: **It only took Koyuki 4 seconds of spying on Keroro and the team to realize that "they don't do shit". **Dororo's address starts with "9, 4..." *Although their relationship with Dororo is less-than-friendly, there are hints that Keroro and Giroro are actually good friends themselves: **When Giroro throws the "Dewgong card" into the rafters, Keroro rallies the rest of the team to help him find it. **Giroro apparently likes to play games with him, including Monopoly and the numerous "Zeroro _____" games from their childhood. *Solid Snake appears after Viper misses a shot at the picture of Dororo and Koyuki. His "advice", "Plug into the second controller port", is a reference to the Psycho Mantis fight in Metal Gear Solid. **The music playing before Solid Snake appears is also from Metal Gear Solid. *Dororo puns/wrong names: **Pants **Door knocker **"Ze-row-row" **Lewis (spoken by Dororo's own mother) **Laryngitis **Doorbell (spoken by Giroro in the Post-Credits) *When Koyuki tells Viper "You won't get away with this", he replies: "Loser says what-what? Ha! Viper-2, you-0". This is the second time a character attempts to "get back" at another but just ends up saying nonsense. **Koyuki responding with "Oh, he got you there, Dororo" is an example of how even the people who actually like Dororo give him a hard time. *Dororo and Viper both exit scenes by exploding. Other Jokes and References *"No, it's a Pikac!" is a reference to a Retsupurae by ChipCheezumSA (Chip Cheezum and General Ironicus) titled "WHO IS A POKEMON IN THIS CRAZY WORLD". The Let's Player, playing Pokemon Yellow, somehow zooms in his screen, cutting off part of the gameplay. The name "Pikac" is one of the results. Chip and Ironicus are one of Thorn and Yoshi's favorite Retsupurae teams, and they are Thorn's favorite Let's Play team. **With the remakes of the previous three episodes, the "guy on the bridge" is now stated to just be Mrs PMS. *The reporter lady's rant on how "Seel is the most original Pokemon ever" is a jab at Pokemon fans who complain that the newer generations are unoriginal in comparison to the first generation. *The teacher misreading Koyuki Azumaya's name as "Cookie Azumanga Dayold Fries" is a play on Yoshi's tendency to purposefully mangle Japanese words. **"Azumanga Dayold Fries" refers specifically to his tendency to call the Azumanga Daioh series "Azumanga Day-yo". Azumanga Daioh is one of the few animes that Thorn likes. **"Cookie" also appears to be the name that people call Koyuki when they don't actually know her name, as Keroro calls her such near the end of the episode. *Lesbo #2 is rambling when Mrs. PMS begins talking over her. Lesbo #2 keeps talking, though all can be heard is "lesbianlesbianlesbianlesbanlesbian...etc". This is a play on the common practice for characters' dialogue to be faded out and replaced with "blah blah blah blah..." *It is revealed in the credits that Mrs. PMS actually stands for Mrs. "Patty Morgan Sanders". **The caption "WHAT" appears above Tamama when Koyuki notes that he's just reading, hinting at Tamama's dyslexia and general lack of intelligence. *Keroro calls Koyuki "Plot Device", then openly admits to their series not having a plot. Sgt Frog not having a plot is an old joke among TheMidnightFrogs, and something that they frequently mention. *Li'l Keroro's geeky laugh is the laugh used by Diabetus in a Guitar Hero 3 Retsupurae as a way to mock the player. Yoshi and Thorn have adopted the laugh for themselves. *Li'l Zeroro preemptively got his revenge on Li'l Keroro's abusive friendship by traumatizing Keroro into instant puberty. **The song clip played at the time, "Instant Weight Loss" by Sparks, hints that Keroro may have also defecated himself. **The image used here is actually a still-frame of Keroro turning his head to face Zeroro. The image was happened upon by accident, and the seemingly shocked expression has been dubbed by Yoshi as the "We-Got-Rid-Of-All-The-Porn-In-The-World Face". *Giroro mentions that after seeing Karate Kid, he made Zeroro paint his fence, referencing one of the unconventional training sequences from the movie. *After Viper apparently beats the platoon, Keroro punch-drunkenly remarks "Alright, great job team. We kicked his ass". Giroro promptly yells back "You didn't do anything!" This is a reference to the original episode, wherein everyone except Keroro makes an effort to fight Viper. *In a last-ditch effort to motivate Dororo, Keroro yells: "CHOCOLATE-COVERED FRIENDSHIP SPEECH!", which is a call-back to the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Abridged one-shot, in which Charmander says the exact same thing to motivate Squirtle and Chikorita. It does not work this time. Reception Episode 4's reception was almost unanimously positive, continuing a trend of the viewers finding the episode to be an improvement over the previous episode. As of June 25, 2011, it had 85 "likes" and 2 "dislikes" - as of August 14, 2016, it has 938 likes and 17 dislikes. While Yoshi's and Thorn's opinions of the episode have dimmed over time, they still consider it to be the point where the series truly came together after the first three episodes (which were later retconned - SFA1R, SFA2R and SFA3R). On the "Sgt Frog Abridged Series Finale" podcast, Yoshi listed the episode as a favorite of his, particularly for when Dororo shows up. On that same podcast, Dororo himself was voted Yoshi, Thorn and Travis's favorite character in SFA, with Yoshi noting Dororo's introduction in this episode as the point where Yoshi came to love his character rather than be apathetic towards him like Yoshi was prior. Additional Trivia *Yoshi and Thorn consider Episode 4 to be the point where the series finally kicked off as a whole, specifically the instant that Dororo is introduced. Though the first three episodes were remade, Thorn and Yoshi have promised to never remake SFA4, effectively marking it as the point in the first season where the current continuity was fully established. **Kululu does not have any lines because his then-voice actor GhostTC did not have internet access throughout production. Ghost would leave the team after Best Wishes Abridged the following month, and while his appearance in SFA3R was one reason it was remade, his absence in SFA4 was one reason it did not need to be remade. *Revy Moonshine makes her debut as Koyuki Azumaya. Koyuki is the only main character, (beside those voiced by the writers), to retain her first voice actor through to her introduction. Most others, notably Momoka and Dororo, had been cast voice actors that were replaced before the characters first appeared. This is partially because Koyuki was never cast a voice actor until production of Episode 4 began. Revy noted the humour in this in the "SFA Birthday Party" podcast, because she was usually brought in to replace people. *The video was uploaded the night of October 23, 2010, exactly a year after the Retsupurae "WHO IS A POKEMON IN THIS CRAZY WORLD" was uploaded. The Retsupurae is referenced early on in the episode, and the similarity of upload dates was not noticed until well after Episode 4 went up. *A celebratory episode of the podcast was recorded following the episode's completion, but technical difficulties resulted in the loss of 7/8ths of the recording. *A commentary of the episode was uploaded March 29, 2011. Thorn also did a solo commentary on June 8, 2013. Category:Sgt Frog Abridged episodes